Omar Robert Hamilton's debut novel, The City Always Wins, was published in 2017. An account of the rise and fall of the Egyptian revolution of 2011, it has been critically acclaimed and awarded prizes in the UK and France.

As a filmmaker his work is in both documentary and fiction. His fiction short, Though I Know the River is Dry (2013) was awarded prizes at Rotterdam and Abu Dhabi Film Festivals and a nominee for best short film at the European Film Awards. As a documentarian he worked as part of the the Mosireen media collective in Cairo, of which he was a co-founder, producing dozens of short documentaries from the Egyptian revolution that were viewed millions of times online.